Romance of the Three Kingdoms VIII

"A Romance Like No Other"

Romance of the Three Kingdoms VII is a very unique version of the previous versions. It offers many new things to the game making it a nice change from VII.

Introduction

This is the eighth game of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms series. It was all based on a civil war that began in China around 184 AD. In it you take on a character of over 600 plus 100 that you can create yourself and set out to unify China under whatever ruler you serve or even rule the country yourself.

Gameplay

This game is very fun and easy to play. You have so many options to create your own three kingdoms story. You can rule your separate country as a ruler, advise your liege as a warlord, Govern a few cities as a viceroy, govern one city as a prefect, serve your ruler doing whatever he or she asks as an officer, wander the land in search of a base to create your own force as a captain, follow your captain in search of his dreams as a comrade, or just wander freely searching for a worthy lord to serve as a free officer.

You can also make friends with other officers and maybe even swear a brotherhood with them binding your eternal loyalty until death. Have your character get married or have a friendly rivalry between another officer of your force. Execute a family member of someone's and you may become a sworn enemy of someone who may try to assassinate you.

You basically control the country. You can help increase the domestic level of cities, raise troops to defend your land, buy and sell supplies to feed your army, gain fame to hire better officers and increase morale, train your skills to become a top general, or even buy items to increase skills automatically. Form alliances with other leaders to help each other or even form coalitions against other leaders to greatly increase the chance of defeating them.

During battles you also have many options. You have a set number of troops depending on your rank. You can use tactics like ''Fire arrow'', ''Rockslide'', or ''Trample'' to help defeat your enemies. You can attack a neighboring city or defend your own city. Fight duels to automatically defeat an officer on the field. Capture officers and either recruit them, release them, or execute them.

The controls are easy to pick up and they even tell you what to press to pick an option on the bottom of the menus. The game is not hard either even if you haven't played previous Romance of the Three Kingdoms games.

Story

The story in every game related to The Three Kingdoms Era is great because so much happened. You can pick up almost anywhere in this time with 54 scenarios. Each with a different introduction and map. This game doesn't really depend on its story. It is more about playing than watching. There are a few events during the game and different endings depending on how you played, but the story doesn't really make the game great.

Graphics

This game doesn't have great graphics, but they are improved from the previous games. Aside from the officer portraits it seems more cartoonish.

Sound

There are only a few songs in the game that repeat, but they never get annoying and they are very beautiful sounds that will make you feel like you actually are that officer in this time of China's past.

Playtime

To complete every aspect and detail of the game will take a while as there is so much. But it depends on the way you work in the game that affects how long it will take. If you continuously play it may take maybe a day or two to complete a scenario also depending on which scenario you choose.

Replayability

The replay value of this game is great. Even after you beat it once you will still want to continue playing all the scenarios and use different officers. It is also worth getting all the items and events for your created officers.

Final Recommendation

This game is definitely worth buying. But if you're not really into these games then you may want to rent it first. Patience also plays well for this game.

I judged this game on three levels.

Gameplay - 10
Graphics - 7
Sound - 9

My overall score is a 9 for this game. So if you can't play a game without terrific graphics then don't bother with this game, but otherwise this is a fantastic game.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 04/29/04, Updated 05/09/04